Re: Rival Teams Starting To Prepare For Possibility Of 76ers Trading Joel Embiid

[RealGM Wiretap]

The Philadelphia 76ers are currently fifth in the Eastern Conference as they have been one of the NBA's more disappointing teams with questions continue to surround the viability of Brett Brown as head coach and whether Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons can fit alongside each other. 

"I've got lead executives talking to me as we go through this, hours and hours and hours that I spend on the phone in and around the deadline, even after the deadline," said Brian Windhorst on his podcast. "Some of the worst for me is the three days of debriefing calls that these guys... I'm very appreciative, I mean I do it. I was on the phone until almost midnight Pacific time after the deadline talking to people.

"But anyways, one of the conversations people are starting to have in the league is 'will they move Embiid? What's the price? Where would he go?'

"I'm not going to get into that, but my point is people are talking about that. I don't think they would do that without making an adjustment to the head coach. It's such a radical thing, but the fact that we're in mid-February and the people who work in the league, who have to prepare in advance, are mulling over Joel Embiid potentially coming to market, whether that's true or not... I mean, Josh Harris can come on this podcast and deny it if he wants, but the fact people are talking about it, is not good. It's a symptom of where they are."

Via Brian Windhorst/ESPN

[Lovetron Joe]

This is clickbait by Windhorse. No named sources. No specific information. "the fact people are talking about it, is not good"....

[Morse Code]

This is clickbait by Windhorse. No named sources. No specific information. "the fact people are talking about it, is not good"....

Yeah, he’s a clown.

[Pickled Prunes]

This is clickbait by Windhorse. No named sources. No specific information. "the fact people are talking about it, is not good"....

Yeah, he’s a clown.

Agreed, Windbag is just that... a windbag!

That said, I can't be the only one enjoying watching "The Process" fail. Losing on purpose has lead to losing on accident and it feels like just desert. Tanking is disrespectful to the game. I wish all the players well personally, and I send my condolences to the fans who have lived through this.... but I hope it blows up! The worst possible outcome for the NBA would have been that PHI sucked on purpose for 4 years and then won rings the moment they began to try.

Screw you too, GSW... I hope your draft pick is a bust!

[Biscayne Beast]

What teams could realistically trade for him and improve their team?

[deeps6x]

Just trying to con Josh Harris to come on the podcast.

[Killboard]

The right thing for Philly. Either he or Simmons need shooters around him, but only one of them can hold his body together and his mouth is smaller than his butt.

[mplsfonz23]

This is clickbait by Windhorse. No named sources. No specific information. "the fact people are talking about it, is not good"....

Yeah, he’s a clown.

Agreed, Windbag is just that... a windbag!

That said, I can't be the only one enjoying watching "The Process" fail. Losing on purpose has lead to losing on accident and it feels like just desert. Tanking is disrespectful to the game. I wish all the players well personally, and I send my condolences to the fans who have lived through this.... but I hope it blows up! The worst possible outcome for the NBA would have been that PHI sucked on purpose for 4 years and then won rings the moment they began to try.

Screw you too, GSW... I hope your draft pick is a bust!

You are NOT alone.
I was kind of pissed when they got Butler thinking they were ready to compete. Not sure what happened, but Butler leaves ever place he plays hot garbage. I really don't feel bad for most of the Philly fans due to how classless they treated Wolves fans when things were going well after he left us.

[kuclas]

This is clickbait by Windhorse. No named sources. No specific information. "the fact people are talking about it, is not good"....

Yeah, he’s a clown.

Agreed, Windbag is just that... a windbag!

That said, I can't be the only one enjoying watching "The Process" fail. Losing on purpose has lead to losing on accident and it feels like just desert. Tanking is disrespectful to the game. I wish all the players well personally, and I send my condolences to the fans who have lived through this.... but I hope it blows up! The worst possible outcome for the NBA would have been that PHI sucked on purpose for 4 years and then won rings the moment they began to try.

Screw you too, GSW... I hope your draft pick is a bust!

Multiple teams have tanked on purchase Seattle/okc started it. Atlanta and Chicago are currently on year 3 of the tank? Dallas tanked. Now golden state.

[ontnut]

What teams could realistically trade for him and improve their team?

Gasol sign and trade, include Terence Davis and an unprotected 1st.
Philly says no, but, it could work and the Raptors would be improved I suppose lol.

[HotelVitale]

[tweet][/tweet]

The right thing for Philly. Either he or Simmons need shooters around him, but only one of them can hold his body together and his mouth is smaller than his butt.

Problem with this logic is that Embiids health issues greatly bring down his trade value, so the ceiling for the team is much lower with an Embiid trade than a Simmons trade. Plus the Sixers already have shooters—everyone on the team except those two is decent to good at 3pt shooting—and the problem is more that they don’t have an anchor talent on offense, someone to build a whole offense around. Simmons’ bad shot and Embiid’s extremely clunky post up game aren’t effective enough on their own, so they keep having to do their frustratingly inconsistent offense-by-committee. Fixing that while still being solid on defense is the obstacle in any trade.

[JonFromVA]

This is clickbait by Windhorse. No named sources. No specific information. "the fact people are talking about it, is not good"....

In his defense, this was from a podcast where pure speculation and supposition is to be expected. He filters his thoughts a bit in his articles.

[IAMZOOTED2]

Fake news!!

[GHOSTofSIKMA]

im going to watch and see how the all star game goes before I make an offer from my club

[Pickled Prunes]

Yeah, he’s a clown.

Agreed, Windbag is just that... a windbag!

That said, I can't be the only one enjoying watching "The Process" fail. Losing on purpose has lead to losing on accident and it feels like just desert. Tanking is disrespectful to the game. I wish all the players well personally, and I send my condolences to the fans who have lived through this.... but I hope it blows up! The worst possible outcome for the NBA would have been that PHI sucked on purpose for 4 years and then won rings the moment they began to try.

Screw you too, GSW... I hope your draft pick is a bust!

Multiple teams have tanked on purchase Seattle/okc started it. Atlanta and Chicago are currently on year 3 of the tank? Dallas tanked. Now golden state.

Sure, but PHI was the first team to make it their five year mission to boldly go where no tank has gone before. They didn't just decide to shut guys down at the AS break or bring guys back from injury slow. They committed to living in the cellar for half a decade.

[NBA Moses]

Embiids lack of progress is concerning. Is it a physical problem or a maturity issue ? Maybe both havent seen Embiid jump much at all recently like his vertical is 0 inches. There has been the rare occassion where Embiid shows up with energy. Usually a national game with plenty of cameras around.

I hate the fact that he thinks hes a mouse, a guard, a small on offense but what is going to get him traded is his matador defense and non existent rim protection at 7'2". Ewing,Mourning,Shaq,Mutombo no players dared enter the lane but with Embiid guards drive right down the lane and layup the ball while Embiid backpedals himself under the basket.

Guy needs to spend a couple weeks with Shaq this summer. Learn the game from a Big Mans perspective.

[scrabbarista]

Um, Windhorst is possibly the best NBA journalist working today. If he says execs are talking about this, then they are. Read his quote. He doesn't even say anything is going to happen. He just says front offices are thinking about getting ready just in case.

He even says the coach would probably have to move first. Then, I would assume, the current roster would be given a chance under a new coach? Meaning this Embiid thing is way in the future - if it even happens? Either that or he means the moves would be essentially concurrent. Either way, he's obviously not saying this is around the corner. Players can't even be traded until the season ends anyway. The most interesting thing, to me, is that Embiid is the player named rather than Simmons. That, in my opinion, would be a mistake on Philly's part.

[NBA Moses]

He even says the coach would probably have to move first. Then, I would assume, the current roster would be given a chance under a new coach? Meaning this Embiid thing is way in the future - if it even happens? Either that or he means the moves would be essentially concurrent. Either way, he's obviously not saying this is around the corner.

Most likely correct. Coach Brett Brown probably will be the first to go, maybe this off-season.

Embiid cant be a free agent until 2023-24 so he still has 3 1/2 seasons as a Sixer. Unless Embiid and his agent force a trade out of Philly earlier.

[BigTex]

[tweet][/tweet]

The right thing for Philly. Either he or Simmons need shooters around him, but only one of them can hold his body together and his mouth is smaller than his butt.

Problem with this logic is that Embiids health issues greatly bring down his trade value, so the ceiling for the team is much lower with an Embiid trade than a Simmons trade. Plus the Sixers already have shooters—everyone on the team except those two is decent to good at 3pt shooting—and the problem is more that they don’t have an anchor talent on offense, someone to build a whole offense around. Simmons’ bad shot and Embiid’s extremely clunky post up game aren’t effective enough on their own, so they keep having to do their frustratingly inconsistent offense-by-committee. Fixing that while still being solid on defense is the obstacle in any trade.

All true. But his value is only going down by the minute because of all of that. Get out while he still has whatever value he has. He never struck me as a winning player. Too much of a complainer. With him is always somebody else's fault. Something is always a problem.

[arasu]

Agreed, Windbag is just that... a windbag!

That said, I can't be the only one enjoying watching "The Process" fail. Losing on purpose has lead to losing on accident and it feels like just desert. Tanking is disrespectful to the game. I wish all the players well personally, and I send my condolences to the fans who have lived through this.... but I hope it blows up! The worst possible outcome for the NBA would have been that PHI sucked on purpose for 4 years and then won rings the moment they began to try.

Screw you too, GSW... I hope your draft pick is a bust!

Multiple teams have tanked on purchase Seattle/okc started it. Atlanta and Chicago are currently on year 3 of the tank? Dallas tanked. Now golden state.

Sure, but PHI was the first team to make it their five year mission to boldly go where no tank has gone before. They didn't just decide to shut guys down at the AS break or bring guys back from injury slow. They committed to living in the cellar for half a decade.

The 76ers didn't plan such a long tank. They just did the usual process of trading away vets that could get the team wins but not enough to get them into championship contention, and focusing on developing younger players. They also consciously chose not to acquire more vets that could help them get wins, until they landed players in the draft they could believe in, as part of the "process". They did a great job developing young guys like Jerami Grant, Dario Saric, and Robert Covington, and they managed to flip their failed ROTY for draft assets (MCW). All of that was fairly standard rebuild procedure, with a little extra emphasis on not playing or acquiring vets, but it wasn't some 5-year super-tank plan. That was just an accident of circumstance. It just so happened that they missed on a few of picks, and Embiid and Simmons both took longer than expected to play in the league.

The main differences in a full-season tank-job, an in-season tank, and a standard rebuild is that tanking usually involves refusing to play/acquire many or any vets who could help a team win. Teams like the Celtics, Mavericks, and, most recently, the Thunder committed to rebuilds while still playing to win. Circumstances led to their various outcomes, not conscious full-season tanking. Even the Warriors had no intention going into this season of becoming a last place team, but they went into tank mode as the season started to turn sour, which is very different than the 76ers full-season "process" tank.

Tanking isn't really that common. It most famously goes back much further than "the process" though. The Rockets infamously tanked their way to drafting Hakeem, and it was that obvious effort that caused the league to create the lottery system. The league has been tweaking that system ever since to try to prevent purposeful losing, which the most recent change has probably helped. Once a team experiences some bad luck though, that purposeful losing appears to be inevitable as long as there is some draft reward for the worst teams.